RBI/2014-15/209
DBOD. AML. No. 3356/14.01.001/2014-15

September 4, 2014

The Chairperson / Chief Executive Officers
All Scheduled Commercial Banks (Excluding RRBs)/ Local Area Banks /
All India Financial Institutions

Dear Madam/Sir,

Simplification of KYC Norms - Creating Public Awareness

The Reserve Bank of India, in the recent times, has been taking several measures to simplify KYC requirements to help the common man open bank accounts. It is, however, observed that despite such measures the general public is still facing problems in opening a bank account as these measures have not been given adequate publicity and the common man still lacks awareness on the basics of opening a bank account.

2. In order to address these issues, create public awareness and give wide publicity to these KYC simplification measures, Reserve Bank has issued a Press Release together with a poster and a booklet comprising a few common questions relating to Know Your Customer (KYC) norms for opening bank accounts. These are available on our website athttp://rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx?prid=31935.

3. In this regard, banks are also advised to initiate steps to create awareness and give wider publicity by circulating the poster and booklet amongst all their branches. Branches may be advised to make available the booklet to the customers/ general public and display the poster prominently in their premises. Progress made in this regard would be reviewed by Reserve Bank in due course.

4. Banks may ensure strict compliance of these instructions.

Yours faithfully,

(Lily Vadera)
Chief General Manager